There was some interesting commentary early on from Jiang that said that the story-writing and gameplay divisions worked separately, which caused issues early on that needed to be resolved. Receiving confirmation about this is interesting, because it would explain a lot of the issues present in Genshin Impact that are mostly absent in HSR - a world that feels totally divorced from the playable characters that live in it, and - up until Fontaine - a lot of playable characters feeling somewhat disconnected from the plot they're meant to be in.

It was also very interesting to see Jiang start talking about marketing, surveys, meeting modern trends, design vs generating revenue etc. versus Nasu talking about his thoughts as an author and the importance of prioritising your ideal creative vision even if you end up needing to take those things into account as well... and how FGO doesn't incorporate modern trends but instead tries to create something that will be meaningful to the players.

It was also extremely funny seeing Nasu talk about how meta wasn't an important factor in FGO (true) - he just wanted people to care about the characters, and Jiang going "oh yeah we do that too!" ...like a liar.

Something Nasu said in response to Jiang talking about how the character designers at HYV take surveys or add character elements that they think 'might attract a new user group' into consideration struck a chord with me though;

Nasu-sensei: This reminds me of an interview I read about "Street Fighter II," where the interviewer asked, "Why did the game include a character like Zangief?" And the response from the interviewee was, "Once you have a character like Zangief for comparison, characters like Ryu with an average physique become even more eye-catching." In other words, a creative work cannot only have popular characters. If we make a fetish black hole, the diversity of the world suffers.. In terms of results, even protagonist-like characters that are somewhat lacking in personality can have their own unique features.

Which speaks to an understanding of a need for variety in design and personality that HYV consistently fails to achieve. HYV has no characters like Blackbeard, Zhang Jue... or even Li Shuwen. It has pretty girls, pretty boys, and younger characters.

Jiang talked proudly about how HSR risks lowering their revenue by daring to include characters like Qingque and Guinafen in the hopes they might attract a new market, but Nasu says 'well, we think about the themes of our stories and what the characters need to be, as well as the kinds of characters we want to write'.

Nasu also plainly outlining the variety of different elements a writer needs to incorporate into a story - including the importance of each character having their own storyline to engage the players, super simple stuff! - is something I dearly hope HYV keeps in mind. HSR has less of an issue with these concepts than Genshin does, but there are several shared weaknesses between the two works.

I can only hope that HYV is taking notes instead of nodding like it already understands the things he's saying - because it does not, and it could stand to listen. I believe that the world Nasu created in Fairy Britain, despite having a lot less to it, is stronger than any single region in either Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail because it, the stories told in it and the characters there, are all thematically consistent and inform each other in interesting ways at all points during the chapter.

I think Belobog achieved a base level of cohesion, but Xianzhou Luofu was a shitshow and Penacony... better pick up soon. Haha. (Jiang describing Xianzhou Luofu as "captivating" though. Bro. Bro Xianzhou Luofu was terrible, what are you talking abou-)

I like reading Nasu talk about the writing process and the things he's enthusiastic about. I don't always like or agree with Type-Moon's decisions or products, but Nasu always strikes me as a down to earth guy that's truly passionate about what he creates and the works he consumes. Jiang seems to have had a lot less to say, though that seems to be because he is... as he himself admits, not a writer.